Exploration of
Complex Adapting Control Systems
(ECACS)
Archival documents
Non-URL References Suggested by Contributors.
Bill Williams: List of Useful Books 14 February 2004
1) Brockman, John 1996 The Third Culture New York: Simon and Schuster
Brockman provides a prediction and description of how the problem of "two cultures" identified by C.P. Snow is, or may be, in the process of being resolved.
" The third culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meaning of our lives, and redefining who and what we are." p. 17.
2) C. D. Darlington's 1969 The Evolution of Man and Society London: Allen & Unwin.
Despite the critics from among the traditionalist in social theory, I think Darlington's version of human history has a lot to recommend it.
3) Dewey John. 1938 Logic: The Theory of Inquiry . New York: Rinehart & Winston.
I regard Dewey's statement of his position in his Logic as still the best comprehensive exposition of a theory of inquiry.
4) Hutchinson, G Evelyn. 1965 The Ecological Theater and the Evolutionary Play New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hutchinson
may have been the first, or at least among the first to adopt modern
conception of ecology in terms of energy and information flows.
5) Judson, Horace Freeland. 1996 The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers
of the Revolution in Biology Plain View N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Press.
Provides an accessible, highly regarded account of the development of modern molecular biology in terms of the persons who carried out the " molecular revolution."
6) Keen Steven. 2001 Debunking Economics Australia: Pluto Press
An accessible introduction to what is wrong with contemporary orthodox economic theory, from the standpoint of a Marxist who is critical of Marxism.
7) Loewenstein, Werner, R. 1999 The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication, and the Foundations of Life New York: Oxford University Press
Provides an, as far as I am aware, unmatched introduction to an information theory conception of biological organization from the bottom up.
8) Snow, C. P. 1963 The Two Cultures: and a Second Look Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
The initial statement of the problem of the split in Western culture between those who are technologically informed and those who are more traditional representatives of European intellectualism.
9) Veblen, Thorstein. 1896 The Theory of the Leisure Class
The classic example of the Veblenian approach to economics and cultural theory.
10) Veblen, Thorstein. 1990 The Place of Science in Modern Civilization New Brunswick: Transactions Publishers
The most representative source
to Veblen's methodological essays-- which despite their date remain
well worth reading.
11) Zirkle, Conway. 1959 Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene .
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
A useful debunking of
social theory from the standpoint of biology.
.